Conventionally, an outdoor unit and an indoor unit of an air conditioner are connected to each other through refrigerant pipes and electrical interconnections. Through the refrigerant pipes, refrigerant is circulated among a heat exchanger that is provided in the indoor unit, and a compressor, a heat exchanger and an expander that are provided in the outdoor unit. Through the electrical interconnections, electric power is supplied from the indoor unit to the outdoor unit and control signals are communicated between the indoor unit and the outdoor unit.
FIG. 6 is a cross-section showing a portion of a conventional outdoor unit of an air conditioner and showing vicinity of connections between the electrical interconnections and the outdoor unit (JP 7-63376 A).
In the conventional outdoor unit of the air conditioner, as shown in FIG. 6, an interconnection opening 121 is provided on a side surface of a main frame 101 of the outdoor unit and is closed by a flat-plate-like interconnection cap 117 having swelling part formed in lower end part thereof. A connector 113 connected to an electrical component 112 is provided in a position in the main frame 101 of the outdoor unit facing the interconnection opening 121, and electrical interconnections 116 connected to the indoor unit not shown are connected to the connector 113. The electrical interconnections 116 are drawn to outside of the main frame 101 of the outdoor unit through a gap between the swelling part of the interconnection cap 117 and the outer side surface of the main frame 101 of the outdoor unit and extend downward along the outer side surface of the main frame 101 of the outdoor unit. The opening cap 117 and the electrical interconnections 116 are overlaid by a cover 11B made of synthetic resin.
In the interconnection cap 117, lower end part is screwed onto the main frame 101 of the outdoor unit and upper end part is pressed by the cover 118 against the outer side surface of the main frame 101 of the outdoor unit.
The conventional outdoor unit of the air conditioner, however, has a problem of poor flameproof capacity. In case of fire occurring in vicinity of the outdoor unit, specifically, the resin cover 118 might be burned or melted by flame. Subsequently, the upper end part of the opening cap 117 pressed by the cover 118 might come off from the outer side surface of the main frame 101 of the outdoor unit and upper end part of the interconnection opening 121 might be thereby exposed. Flame might invade inside of the main frame 101 of the outdoor unit through the exposed upper end part of the interconnection opening 121, so that the connector 113, the electrical components 112 and the like positioned in vicinity of the interconnection opening 121 might take fire.
In the conventional outdoor unit of the air conditioner, the interconnection opening 121 of the main frame 101 closed by the flat-plate-like interconnection cap 117 makes it difficult to ventilate the unit and to exposed to airflow the electrical components 112 positioned in vicinity of the interconnection opening 121. Accordingly, there is caused a problem of a low efficiency of cooling the electrical components 112.